Clover Seedburst recipe- Earl grey and lemon seeded loaf

Hey peeps, I hope you are all not too annoyed with the snow. Now when the snow is coming down, an afternoon baking at home is always very tempting. A while ago I was asked if I would like to try a new spread, Clover Seedburst. As soon as I saw it I decided that I would try it in a lemon cake recipe, as I love lemon and poppyseed loaf, so I thought the other seeds in it (a blend of 7 seeds) would go really well. I was browsing different recipe books, and came across a Lemon and Thyme loaf in the Hummingbird Cake Days book which sounded fab. But I am having a bit of an Earl Grey obsession at the moment, and lemon + Early Grey is such a lovely combination so I have adapted the recipe.

Lemon and Earl Grey seeded loaf

Ingredients:

190g Seedburst

190g plain flour

Zest and juice of 2 lemons

190g caster sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp baking powder

2 Earl Grey teabags

For syrup to pour over:

40g caster sugar

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

Reserved liquid from the tea

Begin by preheating the oven to 170C. Our new oven is taking some getting used to, so I think I started it lower because it is much stronger than our old one, but I ended up having to turn it up a bit.

Line a loaf pan.

Make the tea (you only need a small amount of liquid, so a small cup with the teabags in will do). Cream together the spread, sugar and lemon zest (this helps to release the oils more). Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat to combine. Add the lemon juice, and around 25mls of the tea.

Sift in the flour, baking powder, and mix gently. Then pour into the loaf tin. Bake for 40-50 mins, until a skewer comes out clean.

While it is cooking, make the syrup. Heat together the caster sugar, 40ml of the tea, the lemon juice and zest. Boil it and then let it reduce slightly.

When the cake comes out of the oven, pierce the loaf, then pour the syrup all over. Leave it to cool a little, then remove and leave to cool completely on a wire cooling rack.

I am looking forward to when I can take photos in natural light again!

The lemon juice sinks in, and the caster sugar gives it a sweet topping.

It was delicious. There was a slight hint of tea flavour which went well with the zingy lemon, and the seeds were lovely as they stayed evenly spread throughout the cake.

I don’t tend to have spread on anything- if I make a sandwich I just have the filling, and the same if I have toast I go right for the pb/ jam/ lemon curd etc, but Andy had some of the Seedburst on some french bread and really enjoyed the different texture- we often choose grained bread or seeded bread, so if you like that, then give the Seedburst a try. I am sure I will use the rest of it in something else- maybe some nutty cookies as I think the flavour will work really well.

I was compensated for the cost of the Seedburst and the baking ingredients, but of course the opinions are my own.

Are you a lemon cake fan? It is usually my cake of choice in a tea room now, I love it!

I’ve only made a lemon cake once, but it was pretty tasty (if a little sharp). I usually go for banana bread as my default, but that lemon cake recipe sounds pretty damn tasty; I’ll have to give it a go if I can get the ingredients as part of the #ShopCardiff challenge 🙂